Marked for Alan Ferrari
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
The knee: Vito Esmay out for 41 days
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pastoreo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces3 Jul 2028
Supporters organise against the Pastoreo board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match1 Jul 2028
Chastening afternoon for Pastoreo
A 1‑4 beating by River Plate was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Miguel Cardozo has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Pastoreo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market3 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Alejandro Arce
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alejandro Arce will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pastoreo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market3 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pastoreo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match1 Jul 2028
After 9 games, Pastoreo finally taste it again
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against River Plate; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pastoreo have done the hard part with Sportivo Luqueno, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Pastoreo
Carlos Garduño and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom29 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Pastoreo boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market29 May 2028
Alan Ferrari hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pastoreo can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pastoreo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 May 2028
This is not rotation. Benjamín Guzmán has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pastoreo is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 May 2028
Vito Esmay falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom29 May 2028
Wages eat 165% of everything Pastoreo earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad29 May 2028
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pastoreo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout29 May 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Mar 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pastoreo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Tobías Gavilán was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Pastoreo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Alan Ferrari asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market27 Mar 2028
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Pastoreo could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces13 Mar 2028
The mood at Pastoreo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match8 Mar 2028
Guarani ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market13 Mar 2028
Alan Ferrari hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pastoreo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Mar 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match11 Mar 2028
The wait goes on for Pastoreo
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match11 Mar 2028
Pastoreo leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Pastoreo
Tobías Gavilán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Pastoreo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Andi Vidal beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Feb 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pastoreo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Luis Corrales has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pastoreo is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Vito Esmay beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Pastoreo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tobías Gavilán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Feb 2028
1‑2 to Sportivo San Lorenzo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Pastoreo
Iván Paniagua and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Miguel Cardozo to a room that had heard them before.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
Pastoreo counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Pastoreo now.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Alan Ferrari
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Sep 2027
Every point is an argument now for Pastoreo
Position 15 and 23 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Miguel Cardozo has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Pastoreo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pastoreo can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pastoreo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pastoreo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Aldo Pineda gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Alan Ferrari named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alan Ferrari is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Diego Melgarejo without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Diego Melgarejo was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Robert Maciel has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
Aldo Pineda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Andi Vidal beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match27 Feb 2027
At last: Pastoreo win one
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Sportivo Carapegua. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.90 on the card, and the Pastoreo support went home talking about one name.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Miguel Cardozo could afford to be generous.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Feb 2027
Chastening afternoon for Pastoreo
A 1‑4 beating by Sol de America was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Diego Melgarejo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pastoreo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A one-man rearguard from Aldo Pineda
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Age has not caught Iván Paniagua yet — 7.85
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match20 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Pastoreo's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pastoreo has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Pastoreo
Diego Melgarejo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robert Maciel, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Pastoreo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Pastoreo dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.